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Tuesday, September 20, 2011

No Sew Pumpkin {tutu}torial

Noelle doesn't need another skirt, but I was itching for a craft. I've seen adorable tulle skirts just about everywhere. I figured they couldn't be too hard to make, and I was right.
In this post I'll show you what I did to create a "pumpkin" tutu.

First off you're going to need to measure your little princess's waist. I wrapped the green ribbon around Noelle then marked where the two ends came together with a marker and made knots at those spots. I left about 20 inches of ribbon on each side just in case I made an error, and for a bow.

Next, get those scissors warmed up. I work with one yard at a time, always cutting all the tulle I need for the project before moving on - because it sucks going back to cut more when you're half way done.

Lay the yard of fabric out on a flat surface,

and roll it up, three inches at a time.

then cut the roll into 3 to 4 inch strips. The strips will be the length of the fabric that you have. Now it's up to you to decide how short/long you want the tutu to be. The tulle here was 56 inches long, in order to use all the tulle I had, I cut each strip in half to make two 28 inch strips.

Repeat this for all of the orange tulle you are going to use for the skirt. For the green "leaves," I cut each strip three times: two 20 inch strips and one 16 inch strip. The short 16 inch strip was used to tie the leaves.

Now comes the fun! Weigh the ribbon down so it's easy to tie the tulle - I tied one side of the ribbon to the handle of a heavy saucepan and the other side of the ribbon was weighed down by my flour container as shown. You could also tie it around the back of a chair or around your legs.

Fold the tulle strip in half and bring the open-ended side of the fold under the ribbon,

Then bring it around and stick it through the loop on the other end.

Pull to create a slip-knot.

Repeat until you're out of orange tulle.
Then separate the orange tulle evenly so you can fit in 5 leaves (4 strips for each leaf).

I did 8 orange strips, then 4 green strips with one orange in the middle.

To make the leaves, gather the green tulle and tie it with a short strip.
You can keep the leaves long like the one on the left,

or cut them. I decided to cut them. I envisioned it like this so I wanted to go for it. I think it looks darling and definitely like a pumpkin.

When you're done you can add any embellishments you want. This sunflower was half off at JoAnn's for .99.

The best part - watching your little beauty twirl around in it!

Mr. G coaches water polo, so I made this one for Noelle to wear at home games. Go Tigers!

For this purple & gold skirt I used a stretchy head band instead of the ribbon and it didn't work as well. It stretched out about 5 inches and I had to keep adding tulle. Ribbon works much better.

oh my gosh! I love this tutu! SO cute! Thanks so much for linking up to Tuesday Talent Show! I would love to have you stop by and link up again tomorrow with more great projects!-Nikkihttp://chef-n-training.blogspot.com/